WATER USE

 Water-use home

• Summaries
  • Total water use
  • Groundwater
  • Surface water
  • Historical trends

• Water use by category
  • Public supply
  • Domestic
  • Irrigation
  • Thermoelectric power
  • Industrial
  • Mining
  • Livestock
  • Aquaculture

• Data downloads

• Publications
  • National
  • State
  • Methods

Estimated Use of Water in the United States
County-Level Data for 2015

The current best estimates of county, State, and national water-use data may be downloaded from the National Water Information System Web (NWISWeb) interface, Water Data for the Nation. Data on NWISWeb may have been revised from previous publications such as Circular 1441.

Water-use estimates by county are available for the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands which support the State-level water-use estimates published in USGS Circular 1441, Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2015. Publication data files for other 5-year reports are also available.

The summary of category changes and the water-use terminology page may also be helpful.

Comprehensiveness of data collection for 2015

• All States provided estimates for public supply, domestic, irrigation, livestock, aquaculture, industrial, mining, and thermoelectric power water use. All States also provided estimates of public supply deliveries for domestic use.
• All States will have estimates of the total population served by public supply. States optionally may have estimated public supply population served by groundwater and surface water.
• All States will have estimates of total irrigation. States optionally may have estimated subtotals for crop irrigation and golf-course irrigation.
• Consumptive-use data were collected nationally for the categories of irrigation and thermoelectric power for 2015.
• No commercial water-use data were collected nationally for 2015.
• No wastewater release data were collected nationally for 2015.
• No hydroelectric power instream use data were collected nationally for 2015.
• Public-supply deliveries for commercial, and industrial use were not collected nationally for 2015. Public-supply deliveries for thermoelectric power use were estimated for some States.

Levels of data aggregation and release outlet

• State-level data for the categories listed were published for 2015 in USGS Circular 1441.
• County-level data for the categories listed above are in the companion data release.
• No water-use estimates were compiled nationally by HUC for 2015.
• No water-use estimates were compiled nationally by aquifer for 2015.

Data Release

The file of county-level data for the United States may be accessed on ScienceBase.